The Spirit of God has intrigued mankind for around six thousand years and yet most people are still none the wiser to the fundamental principles involved. In Genesis 1:2 God sets the principle in action... "And the Spirit" (wind) "of God moved upon the face of the waters". Suddenly this breath of God is no longer just an inarticulate, blowing... it forms words. The same breath that produces wind, now creates language, just as our breath gets formed into words by our throat and tongue. "And God said"... is the Spirit's breath that articulates God's purpose. God speaks eight times and these eight sentences speak a world into being, the heavens and the earth, all the creatures and finally the first man and woman into which God breathes the breath of life... his own Spirit. First there is formlessness and chaos, then the breath of the Spirit speaks a new creation into being. This familiar pattern appears all through the Bible.

Life starts with expectations and dreams of great things. However, time reveals that many hopes cannot be achieved. Power, wealth and happiness do not come readily, nor are they easy to keep. Many have come to realise that their life is not going in the direction that they had hoped for. Very few ever attain their dreams and even fewer exceed them. To make matters worse, life itself is running away from us every minute of the day. No matter how well we succeed, or how poorly we fail... life ends anyway; without remedy. This is a great time to introduce the Gospel of Jesus Christ... he promises success for all those who faithfully follow him. He specialises in blessing the people who have struggled and failed the most. The less you have the more he gives.

Pastor Brad refutes some arguments about tongues that have been put forth by Ray Stedman

A study on the topic of salvation reveals much more than finding favour with God and being in a spiritually safe position. It also includes a willingness to step out in faith and let God reveal the unseen opportunities and blessings, which can only come through a solid commitment to serving the Lord. We are challenged by Christ to step out and live by the power of the New Testament, which we all have inherited through faith.

For the average church member, disappointment is often the result of not understanding one of the most common of all bible principles. The Christian life is made up of two principle commitments... to love (serve) God with all our hearts and minds and secondly to love (serve) our fellow brethren with the same zeal as ourselves. Neither can be separated from the other. Disappointments arise when our expectations or hopes are not met, likewise joy returns when the opposite is true. PRO 13:12 "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life".Disappointments multiply when we forget that we are all serving and being served by God. Instead, our lives can be dominated by the actions and weaknesses of men, rather than God's strengths (this is can be equally true from within and without the church). Paul understood this great truth and expanded the principle in his letter to the church at Rome.

Many spirit filled people have very little knowledge of the potential and power of the spoken word. The Holy Spirit is power...2TIM 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind". The power of the spirit is just not found in the obvious miracles that people might imagine: the greatest work of the spirit is the power it has to affect the minds of men and women everywhere. HEB 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart". You may notice that this scripture outlines the real power of the spoken word...it is more than words. Let’s investigate this principle within the written word of God, the bible.

The bible tells us that our bodies are vessels for our spirit... that the spirit is the vital part of our existence and not the body. Unfortunately, most people do everything that brings pleasure to the vessel and do very little to address the real issues of life. It is the spirit that is the crucial factor in all the events and experiences of life. Mankind has it back to front, they focus on satisfying the wrong aspect of their existence. They never find lasting happiness, nor do they ever understand what it is like to be at peace with the world. Many are so busy trying to fill their vessel with pleasure, they never discover the true value of their spirit. The spirit has the opportunity to live forever; the body doesn't. Without the knowledge of God and the purpose of our existence, we are nothing but an empty vessel waiting for our time to run out.

Everyone wants a happy and successful life, but few know the secret. There is a tendency in our society to respond towards others rather than make the first contact... we wait for others to befriend us before we are prepared to befriend them. It may be surprising to some, that the Christian ethic is actually the opposite of our natural tendencies. God acts first, offers first, befriends first, despite our spiritual state or response... and we are encouraged to likewise develop the same attitude towards others. Why should we bother? A successful Christian develops through the successful applications of life's truths. God has wonderfully and surely set the correct pathway before us all... all we need to do is to fashion our life attitudes upon the bible example.

The world at present has a lot of people standing up, to voice their feelings one way or another. Recent examples are the greenhouse effect, global warming, the rain forests, the abortion issue, save the whales, aids, legalization of prostitution, etc, etc. As a result of the ongoing publicity, ordinary people are pushed to think about the issues and form opinions. What about the word of God: where are His voices? Where are the 'John the Baptists' of our age? Many have rejected or compromised the Word of God to serve their own ambitions. However, people don't need powerless religion, they need answers, testimonies of truth, examples of the personal miracle working power of God. They need to hear about the healing of the soul, mind and body.

Feature article in 'The Herald' newspaper about the Newcastle Fellowship."Speaking in tongues speaks volumes about a Glendale church group's commitment to their faith, observes Damon Cronshaw".